Al Franken Is Not Running for President

Al Franken Is Not Running for President

But his new book is the antidote to Trumpism.

June 5, 2017

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As a shattered Democratic Party searches for new leadership, Senator Al Franken has written exactly the kind of thoughtful, bracing book that makes people say: “Al Franken is running for president in 2020.” He insists that he’s not in our interview below, but Al Franken: Giant of the Senate (OK, he’s still funny) is enough to make you wish he’d change his mind. Calling various progressive politicians “the Anti-Trump” is becoming a cliché, but there’s no one who matches the description better than Franken: television star vs. television star, renowned comedian vs. renowned clown. His new book tracks the way he has worked to suppress his comic side and earn stature and respect as a US senator, and it highlights the way that Trump has resolutely and dangerously refused to do the same. Also, the book is hilarious. I talked to Franken on a torrentially rainy day in Washington, DC, in late May. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. —Joan Walsh

JW: I partly think you wrote this book so you could share all the jokes your staff wouldn’t let you tell…

There might be a reaction to all this wanton lying by politicians... you just never know.

AF: Well, there were a few of them. That Scalia’s dissent [on marriage equality] was “very gay”—I really fought for that one! I’d already been re-elected. I will argue my case, but if my people say, “Absolutely not,” I pay attention almost all the time.

JW: Sometimes the book reads like a self-help primer for those of us who were crushed by Trump’s victory. And we needed it. But, of course, you had to have written most of the book before he won—which nobody expected. How much did you have to change?

AF: I was essentially finished with the book—so then I had to figure out what to do with Trump. I decided I’d tie it in to what’s already there. So my pep talk to the “troops” is actually about what happened between the 2004 presidential loss and 2008—talking about Air America, fighting [President George W.] Bush on Social Security and winning. And that all leading to [the Democrats taking back the House in] 2006, and then 2008 and then boom—there’s the reversal. I mean, [Bush strategist Karl] Rove had been talking about a permanent GOP majority. So I said, “I think I know how to do this. I think I know how to make this work.”

JW:Trump feels like the culmination of everything you wrote about in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them—even though you didn’t actually write that book about him…

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AF: But you never know. There might be a reaction to all this wanton lying by politicians, so that people insist on the truth. You just never know.

JW: What do you think it’s going to take for your Republican colleagues to do more to fight Trump?

AF: I don’t know. I think they’re very worried that Trump’s base has stayed with him, and they think it’s their base—and if they’re in a red state, it is. They don’t want to be primaried by someone to their right. Then there are some who are saying, “OK, good, we got the president, he’s not gonna veto our stuff—I may not like the way he operates, there may be a lot about him that’s an affront to a lot of us, but we won, we got the Supreme Court. There may be things in the budget that will really hurt my state, or things in the budget that are simply wrong, and I’ll fight that—but that’s it.”

JW: What do you say to progressives who argue the investigation into possible Trump ties to Russia is a distraction from more important issues?

AF: The Russia investigation is incredibly important—it’s about a foreign power interfering with the very basis of our democracy. So we shouldn’t lose sight of that. But we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time—health care being a prime example. Right now, Republicans are trying to pass a cruel and irresponsible piece of legislation that would have devastating consequences for Minnesotans. I’m trying to stop that bill, because it would dismantle Medicaid, rip coverage away from millions of Americans, and allow insurers to once again discriminate against people with preexisting conditions.

JW: Who in the Senate could have been a Saturday Night Live cast member?

AF: No one… no one. Remember, I wasn’t a cast member. I wanted to be a cast member. I was just a featured player!

JW: Any of your SNL colleagues, could they be senators?

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AF: Oh, yeah—a lot of them. Conan [O’Brien], definitely.

JW:You wrote a book called Why Not Me? about a fake (and disastrous) Al Franken presidential run. Do you ever say “Why not me?” for real about the presidency?

AF: That was a joke! [Laughs] No.

JW:Why not?

AF: It’s a really, really hard job! [Laughs again]

JW:So there are no circumstances…

AF: No. None.

JW:That’s pretty definitive. But I think a lot of people are gonna finish this book and wish you were running.

AF: What I think is funny about the book— remember, I started writing it in 2015; I’d basically finished it when Trump was elected—is some people are gonna read it now and go: “Oh, Franken really cracked the code of what kind of a memoir to write in a post-Trump world! He’s clearly playing three-dimensional chess, and he’s four moves ahead of anyone else!” And I’m like, “No, no, no!”

Joan WalshTwitterJoan Walsh, The Nation’s national-affairs correspondent, is the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America.

I am a Minnesota citizen who has a memory beyond the present news cycle and I am still
shocked at Senator Al's comments last June to the effect that elected leaders knew more about politics than the Minnesota DFL (Democratic Farmer-Labor) caucus voters who supported Bernie by a 2/3's majority, At least our former Minneapolis Mayor Rybek apologized for his mistake in supporting Hillary. Al is trying to retrieve his progressive credentials by attacking Trump-ism but is unwilling to admit past mistakes. If you can't admit your mistakes, how can we be assured you have learned from them?
So Sad in Saint Paul

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 7, 2017 at 7:35 am

Walter, Barbara Lee is a class act.

It would be nice if Curtis could point out the DNC strongpoints in the struggle against Trump.
Ditto for, if Curtis backed, or not, a call out for united Democratic Party stand (one voice) calling for Medicare for All and a Carbon Tax.
Sunday's WNYC "On the Media" was very good, BTW.

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Walter Pewensays:

June 7, 2017 at 10:10 am

Yes, it is telling at this point in history how few Democrats have the courage Barbara does on not bowing to the war trajectory. I mean, how many are there? Something in me never wants to forgive the rest of them for submitting in 03. Some of them damn well knew in their soul it was the wrong decision.

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Walter Pewensays:

June 6, 2017 at 4:54 pm

Would be real nice if the reply button were fixed. I sent a customer service request at the site today. I've had to call to get things working at least once. Wish others would take the initiative. I'm on Chrome OS maybe it's that.
Anyway, I really in so many ways am of Francis' sentiment. I don't see ANY humor in the Trump phenomenon. I find it only disturbing and traumatic. And I sure as hell want to read stuff that addresses it from that angle. There is nothing funny any more, if their ever was. God, this is fucking weird.

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Francis Louis Szotsays:

June 6, 2017 at 2:20 pm

JUST the type of Democratic Senator that a dim–bulb
like Walsh would fawn–over and endorse. Why?

“Well, . . . he IS funny”, Walsh lies.

Notice that there is NOT A WORD about political policy
in the entire article about this man who Walsh pushes
forward as one of her favored presidential candidates.

Franken’s career, both as a comic AND a Senator,
is about as funny, impactful, and memorable as a typical
Laugh–In skit styled after Rowan & Martin.

Walsh is vacuous and an absolute shill for the Democratic Party
Establishment. Please find a legitimate Leftist to make
this space in The Nation worth reading. There will still be
John Nichols and Katha Pollitt to apologize for the likes of
the Clintons, Obama, Pelosi, and Old Folksy Joe Biden.

The political landscape is shifting rapidly. Your staff writers
must change to reflect and LEAD that shift, if you actually
ARE a literary organ of the Legitimate Left.

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Curtis Carpentersays:

June 6, 2017 at 10:43 pm

You and Clark here are wreckers in the old Soviet mode Frank. Have I ever read anything _constructive_ from either of you? Or only whines and criticism?

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Francis Louis Szotsays:

June 7, 2017 at 8:56 am

Do you have any CONSTRUCTIVE comments about what I said? Or is "ad hominem" your only mode?

I want national health care, which the Democrat Party does not yet endorse.

I want a major commitment to clean energy and an end to oil subsidies across the Nation, which the Democrat Party does not yet endorse.

I want OUT of the fifteen year old wars of the Middle East, which the Democrat Party had waged without relent.

I want an unprecedented investment in infrastructure and education and welfare, which the Democratic Establishment has yet to present any plans for.

There are plenty of things that I have expressed my desire for, which will not happen under the current dual–party scam which has left the Leftist agenda unexpressed.

You, and your outmoded liberal friends, are the complacent allies of the Republikkklans that have bowed to the right wing agenda over decades and your hope is to continue along that path, maybe only until YOU actually begin to suffer more acutely from that surrender.

You, as a supine and loyal Democrat, are a major part of the problem.

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 6, 2017 at 2:26 pm

Wrong Francis, she does one gratuitous lead question, asking for the funny-guy's endorsement of the Dem's Red Scourge Spin.

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Walter Pewensays:

June 5, 2017 at 11:11 pm

Now I know what it is that in my limited, middle class LA background that bothers me, being the same age as Joan. We would have complained about the commercials. Joan made the choice to do them. Again, why here?

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Curtis Carpentersays:

June 5, 2017 at 12:50 pm

It has been a real joy to follow the alt-right's rage at the title Franken's gave his book. Typical comment: "Where does he get off calling himself a giant of anything!!!"

Great stuff! Totally illuminates several problems that seem to rack all of our self-styled "conservatives." (Even Buckley had a hard time with jokes.)

On a serious note, maybe it's going to take a laid back person capable of a little self-deprecating humor to bring the country back together again. Lincoln had it, and for all their faults, both Franken and Biden seem to have it too. Breath of fresh air!

Of course, we will always have a surplus of sour pusses like Clark here...

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 6, 2017 at 2:41 pm

Maybe Curtis,
you could tell me what you think of Tom Perez's performance, so far, as DNC Chair.

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 5, 2017 at 1:19 pm

So Curtis,
Am I to assume that the issues that I mentioned are not that important?
Are you satisfied with the DNC's actions, so far this year?
Please listen to yesterday's "On the Media" and give me your reaction to the three segments that I mentioned below.

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Curtis Carpentersays:

June 5, 2017 at 6:17 pm

No, you are to assume that I think you're a sour puss. Anything beyond that is pure speculation on your part.

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 5, 2017 at 7:34 pm

That's really open discussion, I guess.

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 5, 2017 at 10:44 am

Joan,
With your quasi-endorsement of 'our funniest Dem', we can now all sleep on both ears.
Al was one of those "patriots" (collateral damage/9-11) who swallowed the WMD story, hook & line. When aa Air America caller stated that he had seen through the BS from the start (like listening to Hans Blix), Al derisively dismissed him.. something like "well you must have had a powerful crystal ball"..
Reminded me a little of Hill's non-apology for voting for the war-powers resolution.
He vote for Monsanto's Orwellian anti-GMO labeling bill harms his street-creds as a "progressive" a wee-tad.
Maybe Joan could address these things.
Besides protecting a woman's right to choose, and his good sense not to attend Bibi's speech, what else has he done.
He gives an HRC/pragmatic view on Single Payer and as of mid-April had not come out for Medicare for all. He seems (just googled) not to be a Carbon Tax supporter.
Maybe Joan could show us just where he differs with Hill on important issues.
That would be so kind.

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Walter Pewensays:

June 6, 2017 at 10:50 pm

Thank you whoever for fixing the reply function. I know little about Franken's actual political accomplishments. Thanks Clark. If the funny man bought into WMD it's not so funny. Compare/contrast with our wonderful Barbara Lee here in California. She is someone I want to read about. Not Joan's funny commercials.

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Clark M Shanahansays:

June 5, 2017 at 11:15 am

RE: importance of Russia Committee (SPIN!)
WNYC's On the Media had two excellent pieces yesterday:
The Russia Disconnect/8min
Why Liberals are Falling for Fake News About Russia/12min
Too Much of a Bad Thing/10min is also quite informing.
Joan, much of the Fifth Estate, and the DNC are guilty of gross-negligence, with their Russian Circus.